Command normal are performed by pressing a specific direction with a specific button. Every character has both a 6P and 6H command normal, and some have command normals with 6K, 3S, etc. as well. It's up to you to learn the different command normals and the properties of each for your character.

Most 6P command normals are anti-air attacks with upper-body invincibility. This makes them great tools to punish opponents who jump at you.

Hold up during a homing jump to make ALL jumping normal attacks homing jump cancellable for a while!

Everyone's standing Dust is an overhead attack that launches opponents into the air for a flashy air combo. Hitting a standing/crouching opponent will launch them into the air. After that, hold any upwards direction to perform a Homing Jump and follow them up. From here, it's up to you to slap them up with your best air combo.

After reaching a certain height in the Homing Jump, the background will change from the normal stage graphics, to a burning blue display. At any time before the background changes colors, hold up to make ALL of your air normal attacks are cancellable into the homing jump. This makes it so that you can perform otherwise impossible combos, such as Ky able to use j.S SIX times in a Dust combo!

Dust Attacks will only launch your opponent if their feet are on the ground. Hitting an airborne or downed opponent will not result in a Dust Attack air combo opportunity.

Impossible Dust

Impossible Dust combos are combos that look "impossible": an opponent is launched, struck, rises then falls almost to the ground, and is struck again by a standing player. Impossible Dust combos take advantage of the some of the special technicalities of Dust combos to work. Click Expand for an in-depth explanation.

Directly following a Dust launch, there is a 29 frame window where the opponent will be unable to tech. This is approximately the time before the screen begins transitioning to the blue/red background. Any attack during this 29 frame window will be untechable for 48 frames.

The first part of an Impossible Dust is to strike the opponent as close to the 29th frame as possible so the opponent will be unable to tech for an additional 48 frames. 29+48 frames is usually enough time for the opponent to fall back to the ground after a Dust launch. Obviously hitting on the 29th frame is the the most optimal situation, however striking between 25th-29th frame is usually sufficient for most Impossible Dust combos. This 5 frame window is called the "safe-zone".

The second part of an Impossible Dust is to land and get close to the opponent before he can tech. This can be done a few ways: The one is to cancel the homing jump into a Double Jump or Air Dash to stop your ascent and allow you to land, another is to use a special that travels downward quickly, yet another is to use FD to cancel the homing jump, then fall to the ground.

Note: The two parts do not need to be done in order; it is possible to launch the opponent, double jump, then strike the opponent during the "safe-zone".

Double Jump Example with Ky

D > homing jump > j.S > jc > j.H, land, dash 6H > ...

Ky performs a Dust and immediately follows with Homing Jump, j.S, double jump, then hits the opponent with a H during the "safe zone". Since Ky was in a double jump as he struck the opponent, he falls as he normally would from a double jump H. However, the opponent is still in the Dust launch which makes them fall much slower. Ky is then able to land, dash, and connect with a 6H. Very stylish!

FD Homing Cancel Example with Johnny

D > homing jump > FD, > j.D, land, dash ...

Johnny performs a Dust, then shortly into his Homing Jump performs Faultless Defense and perform a j.D. The Faultless Defense is similar to the Double Jump Example in that it cancels the Homing Jump and fall as normal. Essentially, the FD starts moving the player downwards, then the player strikes the enemy during the "safe zone". This pops them up, and puts you down on the ground.

Special Movement Example with Millia

D > homing jump > j.S > jc > j.S > j.236K, land, dash 2H > ...

Millia performs a Dust, follows with Homing Jump, quickly hits with the (hold up) S-S and cancels into the Turbo Fall. The opponent is unable to tech, and Millia rushes to the ground to meet them as they fall. From here, she hits them with her 2H and goes back into an air combo. The key to this ID combo is the Turbo Fall (j.236K). It brings Millia down while her opponent is still falling. Not all characters have downward movement air options, but those that do can certainly take advantage of them!

Press 2D to perform a sweep. A sweep is a basic attack that knocks down the opponent, but each character's sweep enables different okizeme and combos, so it's important to learn what options are available with your character. Sweep attacks provide a great alternative to Dust Attacks as they must be guarded against low.

Note that Robo-Ky does not have a Sweep with 2D, but his 2S serves the same purpose.

Universal Reversal Option. With the right timing, you'll throw opponents in the middle of their moves!

Throws are short ranged, fast attacks that can not be blocked nor comboed into (with the exception of opponents in Stagger).

Normal Ground Throw

To perform a normal ground throw, press either 6H or 4H while next to your opponent. Throws have absolutely no startup at all, so the instant you input the throw is the instant it happens. Keep in mind though that if you miss, you will get a 6H or 4H instead, which is often not good at all.

Because ground normal throws have no startup, it is possible to perform a wake up throw, even if the opponent already has an attack out! To counter this, attackers need to be far away enough so that they will be out of the range of an opponent's throw on wakeup.

You can not perform a throw while running, nor can you perform a throw with the diagonals (1H, 3H, etc.). Players often run > Dash Brake > throw to get around the no-throwing-while-running limitation.

Normal Air Throw

Air throws follow the same rules as ground throws; when near an opponent that is not in block-stun, hit-stun, press 6H or 4H to air throw them. Keep in mind that you cannot air throw someone using diagonal directions. You must press 6 or 4 (forward or backwards).

Air throws often give people trouble because they are not quite as easy to space as ground throws. The ideal way to air throw someone is to be slightly below them and rising up to meet them. Typically if you are above the other person, you will not be able to throw before they do.

Another typical use for air throws is throwing people out of techs or bursts, neither of which are throw invincible. Doing so usually requires you to bait out the escape attempt and punish it.

Throw Option Selects

Because of Guilty Gear's Button Priority (Throw and D > P > K > S > H), it's possible to make some of your normal and airthrow attempts safer by inputting multiple buttons. For example, if Sol does 6K+H, and if the opponent is close enough, he will throw them. If the opponent is too far or is airborne, he'll do 5K instead, which is a much better normal to get than his 6H! You can do the same with airthrows as well!

Command Throw

Command throws are similar to basic throws except they require specific joystick and button combinations to perform. On the whole, command throws inflict more damage than basic throws and often have better follow up possibilities. Command throws also have more range than normal throws, and can be canceled into like other special moves. They also can be done while running, so no need to Dash Brake. Command throws however do have startup frames, so usually can't be used on reversal safely like regular throws can be.

Opponents can not always be thrown. Below is a list of situations when the opponent cannot be thrown:

While the opponent is in hitstun + 6 frames after. Basically this means that after an attack strikes the opponent, even if you RC or FRC the move, they will be invulnerable to throws for an additional 6 frames from when they left hitstun.

While the opponent is in blockstun + 5 frames after blockstun ends.

While the opponent is knocked down + 7 frames after.

Ground throws will miss versus airborne opponents and vice versa.

Some attacks are throw invincible, such as Baiken's 6K. Attacks like this are often good for Wakeup pressure because they are immune to reversal throws. Some attacks also discretely count as being in the air, such as Slayer's 6K. These moves can't be ground thrown, but CAN be air thrown!

Special attacks are attacks that require a more elaborate command input, and have unique effects and properties. These range from standard projectiles (Ky's Stun Edge) to fast invincible attacks (Sol's Volcanic Viper) to command throws (Potemkin's Potemkin Buster).

One distinct difference between special and normal attacks is that specials always build some tension, even if they miss completely. Special attacks also deal Chip Damage as well.

Most Special Attacks do not require any additional resources, but some characters have special attacks which change under certain conditions. For example, Johnny is able to power up his Mist Finer attacks by hitting the opponent with coins, and Robo-Ky's specials consume a portion of his Tension Gauge, but gain different properties depending on how much Tension he possesses.

Though it's not really "attacking", Taunt and Respect do have their uses.

All characters have both a Taunt and a Respect. To perform a Taunt, simply press Start (Arcade) or R (Respect on Console). Taunts can be canceled into into any attack after about half of the animation has played. Respects, on the other hand, can be canceled at any time. Respects are performed by pressing 6R (or 6Start). Both the Taunt and Respect can be used to give a false sense of vulnerability as your opponent may be lured into attacking. Since the Respect can be canceled at any time, it's usually the best choice for a lure attempt.

Performing a Taunt will raise your opponent's Tension Gauge slightly. Note that you can cancel normals into Taunts (but not Respect!).

Performing a Taunt at the end of the match after the opponent is defeated will give the other player 50% tension at the start of the next round! Truly a sign of confidence indeed!

Is the opponent dizzy? If you notice quickly enough, go right ahead and do it.

Instant Kills are attacks that instantly win the round! While this sounds game-breakingly powerful in theory, the restrictions in place relegate it to a rarely seen spectacle.

To perform an Instant Kill:

enter Instant Kill Mode by pressing P+K+S+H while standing

while in Instant Kill Mode perform your Instant Kill attack. For most characters the command is 236236H.

Entering Instant Kill Mode changes your Tension Gauge into a Timer. The timer's length is based upon how much Tension you had stored. It will gradually decrease over time and once emptied, your health will gradually decrease! This will continue until you either perform the Instant Kill or you exit Instant Kill Mode (P+K+S+H while standing). You cannot kill yourself in this manner, but it will leave you with zero health, and the next hit or guard damage will finish you off.

After performing an Instant Kill, you will lose your Tension Gauge for the rest of the round! This will prevent you from using all Tension related actions like: Overdrive Attacks, Force Break Attacks, Dead Angle Attacks, Roman Cancels, False Roman Cancels, and Faultless Defense. You will also be unable to perform another Instant Kill.

Exiting Instant Kill Mode by pressing P+K+S+H will revert the IK Timer back to an EMPTY Tension Gauge.

Each Instant Kill has different properties and can be used in different situations. It's important to know what your characters Instant Kill looks like, and in what situations it may be useful.

Hitting an opponent out of their attack will net you a Counter Hit (CH). Counter Hits increase hitstun or do special effects to the opponent such as wall bounce or ground slide, allowing for stronger combos. In general, the higher level of the attack, the more additional histun is inflicted.

Hitting an opponent when their Guard Gauge is flashing will be a GUARANTEED Counter Hit. You can even get multiple CHs in a row if the Guard Gauge is raised high enough!

Throws will only be CH if their Guard Gauge is flashing; interrupting an opponent's attack with a throw will not be a CH.

Contrary to popular belief, CH's do not inflict additional damage.

Staggers

You can be hit and thrown during stagger.

Stagger is a hit effect that renders your opponent helpless to both attacks and throws for a short period of time.

A joystick icon will appear underneath their health meter indicating to stagger. Shake the joystick as fast as you can to escape the stagger sooner. Hitting buttons does not help escape stagger at all.

Floats

Certain attacks will launch the other player into the air, even when they are standing or crouching. Standing Dust is an obvious example, but also many Sweeps will actually slightly lift the enemy into the air and thus can be used to start air combos.

Other basic examples include Potemkin's 2H or I-No's f.S. Some attacks only float the opponent on Counter Hit like Ky's 6P.

Vacuum

Most attacks push the opponent away on hit and block, but certain attacks will actually pull the opponent closer. These attacks can be used to greatly aid combos and perform setups. Examples include Potemkin's 2S and all of Axl's far reaching pokes (5P, 2P, 2S, etc).

Wall Bounce / Ground Bounce

Some attacks bounce the opponent off the wall/ground when they hit. A ground bounce causes the enemy to bounce off the ground and back up into the air, thus having a similar effect as a move that Floats. A wall bounce causes the enemy to quickly bounce off the wall and fall toward the ground. Wall bounces can only happen to enemies in the air, however most moves that wall bounce also float, which gives you one less thing to worry about.

Typically with Wall bounces, the farther from the corner the enemy was, the earlier he will be able to tech out of the wall bounce.

Wall Stick

Makes opponents fall straight down afterwards. Sometimes you might just want to leave them there.

Wall Stick will cause the opponent to stick in place on the edge of the screen. The effect is very similar to a wall bounce, except instead of bouncing off the wall, the opponent simply stays stuck to the wall before falling. You can combo off a Wall Stick just as you would a Wall Bounce or anything else that leaves the enemy in the air.

Wall Stick is similar to Wall Bounce in the sense that the farther the opponent is from the corner when the attack was initiated, the sooner he can tech after the wall stick. So if you hit the opponent from nearly all the way on the right of the screen and they wall stick, they may only do so for a few frames. If you hit an opponent with a wall stick effect from a full screen away, they may just fly REALLY far away from you and never stick to the wall.

Ground Slide

Skid time is usually not very long, so you're probably going to have to dash in to relaunch.

Ground Slides slide the opponent on the ground, where they can be comboed off the ground WITHOUT triggering OTG effects. Hitting a sliding opponent is effectively like hitting an airborne opponent. For example, Sol's Bandit Bringer causes slide. Sol can perform a combo such as : 236[K], Dash, 2K > c.S > 2H > etc.

Once the opponent stops sliding, they enter normal knockdown state and standard OTG rules apply.

Forced Air FD

Make sure you have meter when going airborne against opponents with moves like these!

Air attacks can normally be air normal blocked, but some attacks MUST be blocked with an FD. The primary example of this is Holy Order Sol's Storm Viper, which must always be FDed if you are in the air, regardless of whether the Storm Viper was done in the air or on the ground. The same is to be said of Axl's Kokuu Geki, and Potemkin's Aerial Pot Buster; keep an eye on your tension!

Unblockables

YEAH

Certain attacks just can't be blocked at all. Examples include Potemkin's Slide Head (236S) and Axl's Rashou Sen ([4]6H). You pretty much just have to get out of the way of these attacks, because you certainly aren't going to block them!

Level 6 Attacks

Although there are technically only 5 levels of attack in GGAC, some attacks have special properties referred to as "Level 6" attacks. These attacks have extra added blockstun, and make a unique sound when blocked. Examples include Potemkin's 6H, and Ky's 6H.

Off The Ground Attacks (OTGs)

Sometimes you can tack on extra damage and manage to kill if their health is low enough.

To Off The Ground (OTG) someone means to strike them after they hit the ground.

Unlike other games, once a character has hit the ground in GGAC, you cannot OTG them into a relaunch (with few exceptions such as Ky's Lightning Strike and May's Jackhound). OTG attacks only do 25% of their normal damage, and can be teched out of quickly. This generally makes OTGs poor tools for adding damage, but still good for pushing the opponent towards the corner at the cost of sacrificing okizeme.

Some special attacks still gain their effects OTG, such as Johnny's coins or Testament's crow curse.

Each attack has an Attack Level rating. Depending on the rating, the attack will inflict a different amount of hitstun / blockstun. Use the chart below to determine how much hitstun/blockstun an attack will inflict. The level rating for each attack can be found in the individual Character Analysis sections.

When an attack connects in Guilty Gear, both players pause briefly to make moves appear more powerful visually. This actually gives players a bit of extra time to buffer inputs for moves. This is extra beneficial for charge characters (May, Venom) because it gives extra time to charge moves, allowing them to perform some combos that would normally not seem possible.

If you are struck repeatedly over short amount of time, your character will become stunned (also known as "dizzied"). You will be unable to perform any actions such as blocking, attacking, or even teching combos while dizzied!

Dizzies are indicated by angels flying around your character's head. The angels act as a timer and when all the angels are gone, you will regain control of your character. You can speed up the recovery by shaking the joystick in all directions and rapidly pressing the buttons.

Dizzying an opponent mid-combo allows players to land and begin another combo (or an Instant Kill) on a dizzied character if their opponent doesn't shake out fast enough!

Each move contains a different "dizzy potential". Depending on the dizzy potential, it will take a different amount of consecutive hits with the move to make the opponent dizzy. Each character has their own Bear Stun Rating which is basically their "dizzy resistance". The higher the number, the less likely it is they will get dizzy.

Character State Modifier - state the opponent is in while struck (IK Mode refers to the striking character)

Normal Hit = 100%, Counterhit = 200%, OTG = 25%, IK Mode = 50%

Examples

Example 1 (Normal Hit) - Potemkin's 6H (90 damage)

If Potemkin's 6H strikes the opponent on a normal hit, this is how the dizzy potenial is calculated. First the damage is taken into account (90), then the combo hit modifier (say this is the first hit, so 100%), then the state the character is in while struck (normal hit, so again 100%).So far we have 90 x 100% x 100% = 90.

Next we automatically subract 5. Total is now 85.

The total is then multiplied by a random number between 1.00, 1.01, 1.02, or 1.03. Let's say in this case it's 1.03 (best case scenario), so we now have a total of 87.55.

Finally, we multiply the total by .15, and end up with a grand total of 13.1325 (so basically 13 stun is inflicted).

Example 2 (Counter Hit) - Johnny's 6H (76 damage)

Using the same formula above, except changing the "Character State Modifier" to 200%, we can attain the total amount of stun inflicted.

Multiply the entire sum by .15 and we get 22.05 (so basically 22 stun is inflicted).

Now you compare the number against a characters Stun Resistance Rating and you can see how much closer they are to becoming dizzied after your hit strikes. For example, Chipp's Stun Resistance is 50, so subtract the 22 stun inflicted from Johnny's counterhit 6H and you can see Chipp only has 28 stun points left before he is rendered helpless!!!

If you do not take damage, the amount of stun you have received will gradually heal (be subtracted). As long as you are not taking damage, the healing rate is as follows:

2.4 per second (normal state)

4.8 per second (while opponent is in IK Mode)

6.0 per second (while your character is downed)

If you've read the chart carefully, you can see that the system has been designed so it is harder to activate IK Mode and then dizzy the opponent for the Instant Kill. While you are in IK Mode, you will only be inflicting 50% stun, and your opponent's stun will be healing at a rate of 4.8 units per second.